Sales Prospecting 0 Comment

5 Ways to Get Your Prospects to Pick Up Their Phones

If you want to improve your sales numbers, start by having more conversations. According to The Bridge Group’s recent SaaS Inside Sales Survey Report, there is a strong correlation between the number of conversations reps have each day and quota attainment. According to the study, the average sales rep has around only 6 conversations a day. But top prospectors are having a lot more conversations than that.

There’s a lot of revenue to be won through successful sales prospecting. And the good news is that there’s a science to having more conversations every day. In this post, I’m going to show you five awesome hacks that can help you connect with far more conversations with your prospects every day.

Dial at the Right Time

You may have noticed that it’s easier to connect with prospects during certain times of the day. The early morning is often a good time to reach prospects, before things get too hectic. In the late morning through the early afternoon, decision makers are likely to be too busy to take calls.

You might have much better luck later in the day, after the dust clears. So do as much dialing as you can during this window. According to data from KISSMetrics’ infographic, the best times to dial prospects are between 8 and 9 AM and between 4 and 5 PM.

Accelerate Productivity

According to the recent Sales Development Technology Report from Topo, it now takes an average of 18 dials to have a single conversation with a sales prospect. Now by using any of the tactics in this post you’ll be connecting with way more prospects than the average rep. But perhaps the easiest way to have more conversations is to dial more leads.

The Bridge Group’s recent Sales Metrics and Compensation Reportshows that by using dialing technology you can engage in at least 22% more conversations. Tools that can help you increase dialing velocity, research accounts faster and slash the time you spend logging data in CRM can enable you to dial and connect with more of your prospects.

Dial from Local Area Codes

One of the reasons that prospects are picking up their phones less is because they’re using caller ID more. Let’s face it – most people don’t want to answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize. However, according to a survey conducted by reviews website Software Advice, prospects are up to 400% more likely to answer calls from numbers with local area codes. I don’t know about you, but I’d be way more likely to answer a call from a local number than some toll-free or out-of-state number I don’t recognize.

Convince More Prospects to Call You Back

Ask anyone who has used the phone for outbound prospecting and they’ll tell you that you’re going to be sent to voicemail. A lot. While some reps don’t even bother leaving voicemails, seeing it as a waste of time, a compelling voicemail can definitely inspire prospects to pick up their phones to call you back (or at times, even respond by email). So if you’re looking to have more phone conversations, encourage prospects to call you.

Here are some tips I’ve picked up that have really improved my voicemail response rates.

Keep it brief: No voicemail should ever be longer than 30 seconds. Period.

Be easy to call back: Leave your phone number clearly (don’t rush). And say your name, company and phone number twice if possible.

Say their name: I like to say prospects’ first name twice during sales voicemail messages. People tend to like hearing the sound of their own names.

Sound amped: This is more important than anything. If you sound bored, tired, angry or nervous no one is going to want to call you back.

Hold off on the pitch: Unless you’re selling something with a really simple value prop (refinancing comes to mind) save your sales pitch for the call. Instead, lead with a benefit.

Here’s an example: “Hi Elizabeth. This is Jesse from RingDNA calling. I wanted to talk about a couple ways that I can help you quadruple the number of sales conversations you have each day. Call me back at… Again this is Jesse at RingDNA. Looking forward to hearing back from you, Elizabeth.”

Use a Multi-Channel Contact Strategy

This post is about how to get your prospects to pick up their phones. But the truth is that there are some people who will never take calls from reps they’ve never heard of from companies they don’t recognize. The best prospectors I know don’t just call prospects. They send emails, connect on LinkedIn, use Twitter and a variety of other channels. The more you can familiarize prospects with your brand, the more likely they’re going to be to take a call with you.

To help yourself stay organized, I recommend working out a contact schedule for your prospect.

Here’s an example:

Day One: Send email

Day Two: Connect on LinkedIn

Day Three: Call

Day Five: Follow-up email

Day Six: Follow-up call

Day Eight: Another follow-up call

etc.

Outbound sales will always be a challenge, but, with the right approach, it’s a challenge well worth undertaking. By using the tactics I’ve laid out for you, you can sustain yourself with more than enough call connections to create the opportunities and revenue you need to thrive. Just remember to be relentless. After all, sales is a profession of persistence.